In case anybody is interested, I've created a small patch to the main development trunk to enable HD audio bitstreaming for my (still-in-the-works) HTPC project. This is not a competitor to the much more ambitious AE branch, but rather a stability and feature patch which affects the trunk code as little as possible.

Test system:

AMD Fusion E-350 running Windows 8 DP 32bit, Realtek HDMI audio

Yamaha RX-V1900

Pulse-Eight CEC-USB adapter

tests were also run with AMD Catalyst HDMI audio driver and on Windows 7 HP 64bit